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Khadir, or Khwaja Khadir (Khizr, Khezr, Arabic: "green", "greenish"), Green Prophet (green symbolising "freshness" and new life) is a popular and familiar figure across Arabic countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, India and the Far East. The complex and mysterious figure of Khezr is connected with Idris, Elijah, Enoch, Saint George, and Skanda, and is associated with the water, cave, and immortality (he lives on an island or upon a green carpet in the heart of the sea, or else in the far northern country called Yuh, which seems to be an earthly paradise). Khezr is reputedly the only soul who has gained life immortal from tasting the Fountain of Life. He is still alive and continues to guide those who invoke his name. In popular Islamic lore Green Prophet is also the mysterious guide, an angel, the immortal saint and the hidden initiator of those who walk the mystical path. He appears in Sura 18, 66 (Al Kalf, "The Cave") where together with Moses he goes on a long journey to a point where two rivers met. But his wisdom surpasses that of Moses, and has rather a tinge of gnosis, the character of divine wisdom imparted by God to the Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Khidr.

Keywords: Green Prophet, immortality, Sura 18, the cave, fountain of life, fish, water, Sufi, initiator

Slowa kluczowe: Zielony Prorok, niesmiertelnosc, sura 18, jaskinia, zródlo zycia, ryba, woda, sufi, inicjator

Niektórzy komentatorzy Koranu widz^ w Chezrze1 proroka, inni aniola, który jest przewodnikiem día szukaj^eyeh Boga, jeszeze inni ezlowieka doskonalego lub wale-go - "przyjaciela Boga". Ibn Hadzar al-Asqalänl (1372-1448), uczony szkoly szafickiej i wybitny znawca hadisów, pisal: "W naszej opinii Chezr jest prorokiem i nie ma co do tego zadnej w^tpliwosci. Bo jak ktos, kto nie jest Prorokiem, wie wiçcej niz prorok? Prorok Mahomet, mial powiedziec: «Nie, Ty nie posiadasz najwiçkszej wiedzy, posiada j^Chezr»"2. Podobnego zdania byl tez filozof i wybitny prawnik - 'Abu Hayyân al-Tawhïdï (932-1036). Wiçkszosc muzulmañskich uczonych uwazala ponadto, ze Chezr to prorok, którego wiedza byla m^drosciq. (gnoz^) rzeczy ukrytych, podczas gdy wiedza Mojzesza - wiedz^ zewnçtrznego prawa. Jednak inny wielki autorytet islamu, komentator i przekaziciel tekstów sufickich Qasim al-Quszayri (986-1015) stanowczo temu zaprzeczal. "Chezr - pisal w jednym ze swoich dziel - nie byl...

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